Phantoka Kopaka Nuva, on 14 September 2011 - 03:36 PM, said:
So uhm... What's to say about the 4.0 heroes?
- Upgraded
Thornaxmeteorlavaball launchers. Nice detail. But WHY THE HELL IS ROCKA'S LAUNCHER'S LOWER HALF NOT GOLD!?!?!
- No Stormer. Guess that makes Furno the leader.
- Cuffs??? PRISON BREAK!!!

- Black Phantom??? Srsly, he's just a skinny black version of Fire Lord. Already owned FL, so NO.
- Why are Surge and Evo still midgets???
- Arrrgh, Evo and Rocka have no melee weapons.
- From the set backgrounds, it seems like each hero will go solo to different areas to catch criminals.
Wait... that means Furno is going underwater.

That also means we get: Furno vs. Jawblade, Surge vs. Splitface, Breez vs. Thornraxx (ugh the name), Evo vs. Toxic Reapa and Rocka vs. Black Phantom. Once again, Rocka hogs the big bad boss to himself.
Well, maybe I'll get Rocka. Or Surge.
Furno going underwater, combined with his overall design, immediately reminds me of
8111 River Dragon. Not that that's a bad thing.
Mesonak, on 14 September 2011 - 04:29 PM, said:
I think that's just part of the cover art; notice the zipper motif on the Hero's page.
If it is true, however, that's awesome.
Agreed, because TLG might have finally found a middle ground that satisfies both criticisms and praising of canisters. If the containers are "soft containers", which the shape sort of suggests, then they can be collapsible and thus not take up as much space as canisters (a frequent criticism of canister-based packaging). But if they are sturdy enough to be re-sealed, then they still fulfill the same storage function as canisters. The only problem with them then is that unlike canisters and boxes, they are not stackable. This is almost definite seeing as they have "hooks" at the top to be placed on hanging racks in stores. But I'm sure it's a small sacrifice for those of us who stacked our canisters to consider alternate storage solutions for these new sets.
I think the zipper motif could be stylistic, but because there's an actual zipper pull depicted on the box art that suggests to me that it's meant to show off the resealable nature of the packaging.
vexorian, on 14 September 2011 - 04:36 PM, said:
Classic Looking Masks
CLASSIC LOOKING MASKS
Why wouldn't they do this with the toa? Wow. This is great to be honest. Rocka and Furno are looking interesting. I have hopes for Evo to improve. The villains ... most of them are me. Phantom is quite like a skinny firelord. Jawblade's shape makes no sense. Splitface's concept is great , but I don't like the double-color piece and is otherwise just nitroblast. Thornaxxx and Toxic are GREAT for pieces though.
I really welcome the ditching of canisters and how there are three big heroes and two small ones.
Hopefully the "canisters" are actually strong bags. That would make them very useful and at least a ton better than canisters.
Edit: If you notice, SplitFace is probably going to cost the same as the larger heroes. And the other villains sans Phantom will cost the same as the smaller heroes.
Regarding the masks, I think that this is a much different case than BIONICLE... note that many people who wanted classic masks on BIONICLE characters disliked the complexity of the newer masks those characters were given. In the cases of 2.0 and 3.0 heroes, though, the newer masks tended to be simpler in design, with widgets like microphones and antennae placed on the helmet accessory pieces for the 2.0 heroes and completely absent from the 3.0 heroes. So rather than going back to a simpler visual design we're going back to a more complex and intricate one. That's just my perspective, of course.
By the way, I love Thornraxx's design even more now that I realize his head is the same piece as Black Phantom's "bug blaster". All the villains are very creative, besides Black Phantom (but being an earlier prototype than the others pictured, it's hard to tell what might change in his design). As of right now, Black Phantom has the same problem as Witch Doctor, but to an even worse degree, as his design makes no progress whatsoever. At least Witch Doctor showed creative improvement of a sort. So did Rocka XL, even though Rocka XL had about as many negative changes to the design as positive ones. But this guy is basically a hybrid of Fire Lord and Rocka XL with most of the flaws from both and no really new ideas.
The heroes are mostly excellent in my opinion. Things that bother me include the return to Glatorian heads (might be alleviated if they have reinforced joints), the increased size, and the fact that TLG no longer seems to be bothering to approximate Hero Core and eye colors from past lines. That last one's not really a problem for any of the heroes but Evo... besides him, all of the Heroes at least have one of their old Hero Core colors somewhere in their color schemes. His lack of purple isn't a problem for me because I desperately want purple parts, but rather because I want
consistency.
By the way, another thing I like here is the occasional use of System, for instance on Breez's leg-jets or Toxic Reapa's back-canisters. It demonstrates for me that the designers won't rule that sort of thing out from the beginning, instead leaving that option available.